Sample or picture exhibitor



(No Model.)

H. FREROKS. SAMPLE 0R PICTURE EXHIBITOR.

No. 447,815. Patented Mar. 10, 1891.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY FREROKS, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

SAMPLE OR PICTURE EXHIBITOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 447,815, dated March 10, 1891.

Application filed April 21, 1890. Serial No. 348,833. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, HENRY FRERCKS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, county of Cook, and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in a Sample and Picture Exhibitor, which are fully set forth in the following specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part thereof.

The purpose of this invention is to provide a convenient device for holding'and exhibiting cards upon which are imprinted illustrations, or to which are attached samples of merchandise. The same device is intended to be adapted to exhibiting pictures.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a top plan. Fig. 2 is an axial section. Fig. 3 isa side elevation with the card-holding frames removed.

Fig. at is a side elevation of one of the card or picture holding frames. Fig. 5 is a vertical transverse section of one of the frames.

This device comprises a fixed standard designed to rest upon the floor or table, having the base A and the spindle A rigid with said base and projecting upwardly therefrom at its center.

It comprises, further, a revolving turret, which is supported upon the standard, and comprises the bottom disk B and the cap or top disk B, said disks being joined together and made to constitute a rigid frame by means of three or more vertical rods Biwhioh, if the device is made of metal, may most conveniently and securely be connected to the bottom disk and cap by being provided with right and left threads at their opposite ends, respectively, which screw into right and left threaded sockets in the bottom and top caps, respectively, thereby joining the said caps securely and rigidly. The bottom disk B is apertured at its center, so that it may be passed onto the spindle A, and the top disk B"has a deep socket b at its center, which is conical at the bottom, or, more correctly speaking, at the top, since the socket enters from the bottom side of said cap, said socket being adapted to receive the upper end of the spindle A, which fits it, and which'is conically pointed, said point seating in the conical end of the socket; The length of the spindle A is designed to be such with respect to the entire distance from the end of the socket b to the bottom of the bottom disk B that when the turret is hung on the spindle, the latterv entering the full depth of the socket cl, the bottom disk B will be out of contact with the upper surface of the base A; but inasmuch as the use of the device will constantly wear the end of the spindle and of the socket b I consider it desirable to provide anti-friction rollers a, let into the top of the base A, on which the turret will rest, while at the same time it hangs on the spindle A. Obviously the spindle might be shorter, so that it would not touch the end of the socket b, in which case the entire Weight of the turret and the frames pivoted in it, as hereinafter explained, would rest on the rollers a.

C 0 O, &c., are the card-holding frames. They are preferably rectangular and are provided at the opposite ends of one lateral edge with pintles O at the top and O at the bot-.

tom, by which they are adapted to be pivoted in the top and bottom disks B and B, respectively, of the turret, said disks having sockets b in the top disk and b in the bottom disk to receive said pintles. The pintles O at the top of the frame are longer than the pintles C at the bottom, and the sockets which receive them are correspondingly deeper; but the length of the frames is such with respect to the distance between the top surface of the bottom disk B and the bottom surface of the top disk B that when the pint-1e O is pushed up its full length into the socket b the end of the pintle C will pass in over the top of the bottom disk B, so that the frame being allowed to descend said pintle will enter its socket, the extra length of the pintle C causing it to be still engaged in its socket notwithstanding the downward movement by whichthe shorter pintle C is seated. I prefer to make the frames capable of opening at one end or side in order to insert the cards or pictures. As illustrated, the upper end is adapted to open, being for that purpose hinged at the outer corner to the outer side and provided at the opposite end with an eye 0, which is in position to shut down around the pint-1e C, said pintle being threaded at the lower part below the portion which enters the socket 11 and-a nut 0 being provided to screw onto it after the eye 0 has been shut down around it, and in this manner the frame is closed and rendered as rigid as if the upper end were not thus hinged, but were instead made fast to both sides. All four sides of the frame are provided with a groove 0 on their inner edges to receive and retain the cards.

It will often be convenient when the device is used for holding pictures or cards upon which illustrations are printed without samples attached to be able to insert such cards without opening the frame, and when the device is used entirely for containing such cards the frame need not be provided with the hinged end, but instead one end or side may be slotted through in the plane of the groove and the card inserted through such slot. Such construction is illustrated in Fig. 5, wherein the upper end is represented as slotted entirely through its width, so that the picture may be inserted from above without opening the frame. This feature of construction maybe employed even when the frame is provided with the hinged end, that end being then slotted, as described and shown. The frame may thus be used in either waythat is, by opening to insert the card or by inserting the card through the slot.

- This device is chiefly intended to be used, as stated, to exhibit samples of merchandise, and when used for that purpose its value will very greatly depend upon the facility it affords for finding any sample readily, and to render the convenience in this respect as great as possible I design that each of the frames C shall be numbered or lettered and the periphery of the cap-plate B correspondingly numbered radially in line with the socket b that is, each frame and the socket which should receive it bearing the same number or letter. The salesman operating the device to exhibit samples can then readily find any desired sample by being familiar With its number, because the whole turret, revolving freely on the spindle, can be turned to bring the desired number, as shown on the rim of the cap-plate, within reach.

The thickness of the frames C will be such as will adapt them to protect the samples fastened to the cards and prevent contact of the samples contained in contiguous frames, thus preventing tarnishing or abrasion or defaoement of such samples. For samples of some kinds of goods it may not be desirable,

or at least not necessary, that the cards should be removable from the frames, the samples being, instead, removable from the cards, and in that case, for metal samples particularly, in place of the removable card there maybe afiXed thin panel of wood, or even metal with proper appliances, for' securing the sample thereto, and such a panel may be used in the frames which are slotted or have the hinged end, or both, for the purpose of permitting the removal of the card or panel, even though the same be not necessarily removed in use.

I claim 1. In combination with the base and its spindle and the turret revolving thereon and having top and bottom plates facing each other and provided with the vertical cardframe bearings, respectively, in vertical line with each other, the card-frames, the length of the frames plus the length of one pintle being less than the distance between the opposing faces of the top and bottom plates, and the distance between the opposite extremities of said pintles being greater than the distance between the opposing faces of said plates, substantially asset forth.

2. In a sample or picture exhibitor, in combination with the revolving turret, the cardframes adapted to be pivoted vertically in said turret, said frames having their interior edges grooved to receive the cards, and having their upper ends hinged to one side and adapted to be releasably secured to the opposite side, substantially as set forth.

3. In combination with the turret and the card-frames pivoted at one vertical edge to the top and bottom plates of the turret, said card-frames having the upper end hinged to the outer side, and having an eye adapted to shut down over the pintle at the inner side, and suitable means for locking said eye onto said pintle, whereby the pintle serves, in addition to its principal purpose, the further purpose of securing the hinged end, substantially as set forth.

Subscribed at Chicago, Illinois, this 16th day of April, A. D. 1890.

HENRY FRERCKS. \Vitnesses:

CHAS. S. BURTON, H. B. HALLOOK. 

